Throughout, McEwan poignantly shows how the characters contend with major historical moments while dealing with the ravages of daily life, which is what makes this so affecting. Alissa then publishes a bestselling (and specious) memoir, which isn’t so nice on Roland. In 1986, three-year-old Lawrence obsesses over such events as the Chernobyl disaster while Roland confronts the lingering impact of Miriam’s abuse and Alissa’s sudden reappearance. With help from the police, he tracks her movement to Paris, prompting bittersweet memories of their courtship. He marries Alissa and has a son, Lawrence, but Alissa disappears when Lawrence is an infant. He grows into a distant underachiever, eventually finding work as a lounge pianist in London and, occasionally, as a journalist. A sexual relationship ensues, and Roland never recovers from the experience. Protagonist Roland Baines, “another inky boy in a boarding school,” is 11 when his piano teacher, Miriam Cornell, begins to groom him for abuse. McEwan returns with his best work since the NBCC-winning Atonement, a sprawling narrative that stretches from the commencement of the Cold War to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |